Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Human psychology interests me. That is one of the reasons why I am in this profession. The need for humans to write, narrate and be inspired by stories, both fantasy and reality, is a continuing source of fascination for me. And the interaction of these narratives, especially the magnum opuses, with human beings' lives is even more interesting.

What accounts for football fan riots? Why did more than 70000 people in Australia declare their religion was Jedi? (Link). Why are people ready to kill others inspired by the rousing lines and episodes in their holy books?

The answer, I have found, is quite simple. It can be read to the cadence of Arthur C Clarke's third Law:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

The Law of Inspiration simply states:

Any sufficiently broad narrative can be used as a guide for making life decisions.

The Corollary to the Law of Inspiration is:

The sufficiently broad narrative chosen as a guide for making life decisions will be applied completely out of context for self-serving ends.

There are more corollaries here, but I leave it to you, dear reader, to come up with them. In your free time.